(underlying image courtesy Fanpop)
Looks like Google Books are coming! The Wall Street Journal says to expect them in late June or July, but there are not many details so far. Supposedly it will be heavily cloud-based, and retailers can sell them and split the revenue with Google.
It does lead to a few questions, at least for me. One, will Google be enabling offline reading, or will this require a full internet connection? Based on my experience with Shortcovers, it is a huge battery drain to require a fresh connection at each page or chapter turn. Two, how is this going to tie in with Agency pricing? Has Google figured out a way to slice those contracts three ways to cut in 3rd party sales partners, or will we see non-agency titles only? And finally, what about stores like Barnes and Noble and Kobo, who stock Google versions of classics? Will they opt to sell Google Editions as well?
With a few tweaks, Google could easily knock Apple’s iBooks offering to the ground. For starters, they need to have a better offline solution. Browser-based is great, but take a page from Kobo and offer downloadable versions as well. Depending on how the digital-rights management shakes out, offering books in Kindle and ePUB formats would allow owners of ebook readers to easily load Google Editions as well. Plus, and this is big, make an awesome, gorgeous, native Android app. Similar to how iBooks is praised for it’s UI, Google needs to have a similar killer interface. With an army of Android tablets coming in all shapes and sizes, plus phones like the EVO and Incredible showing off huge 4″+ screens, this is a chance to make an ebook interface that is far, far better than just a browser window.
Google has a good shot at making a big splash in the ebook space. A solid cloud based sync, the ability to transfer notes and annotations across different devices, and the potentially large footprint from the existing Android base all give Google Editions a strong shot. But it has to be leveraged effectively and they need strong content to really make this a home run!
